The Swedish government allocated 6 billion kroons (664 million dollars) to mitigate the effects of sharp increase in gas costs. One of the reasons for high prices for the energy of the European country was considered the actions of Russia, reports Bloomberg.
“Swedish consumers should not be so suffering because of, among other things, Russian behavior in the European energy market,” said Minister of Energy of Sweden Jashair Farmanbar and stressed that this is an exceptional situation.
Sweden’s authorities intend to give subsidies of 1.8 million households, the electricity consumption exceeds 2000 kilowatt-hours per month. Wholesale prices in southern Sweden in December 2021 were almost five times higher than in the same month of 2020. Against the background of cooling, many conscience faced the problem of large accounts.
The situation on the European gas market became complicated at the end of August, when the export of fuel exports to Europe decreased against the background of the accident at the Gazprom plant in New Urengoy. As a result, in conditions of low levels of storage facilities, the cost of a thousand cubic meters of gas on European stock exchanges in peak moments reached $ 1,200. In January, it became known that more than half of the volume of gas ranked last year for the winter from underground repositories of Europe. As noted in Gazprom, gas reserves in European PCG are at the minimum levels for this season for many years of observation history.
The guilt of Russia in the current situation is also seen in the International Energy Agency (MEA). “We believe that due to Russia’s actions in the European gas market there are strong elements of tension,” the head of the Fatih Birol agency confirmed. In his opinion, Gazprom could, if desired, increase the delivery of at least a third of the real volumes. Also, the head of the IEA said that it was the actions of the Russian concern that the main cause of gas deficit in European storage facilities was becoming the main reason.